In February 2022 when war started in Ukraine, the MakersXchange Project decided to take action and support artists and creative professionals from Ukraine. This is how the idea of the Ukrainian Artists & Creatives Support & Grant Program was born.
MAX (Makers’ eXchange) project is a pilot policy project, co-funded by the European Union, that aims to define and test policies and actions supporting the mobility and exchanges of experience between the cultural and creative industries, creative hubs, maker-spaces, fab-labs and formal and non-formal learning and skills development systems in a cross-sectoral way and embed makers’ mobility schemes for skills development and inclusion into mainstream CCIs support programmes, policies and ecosystems across Europe.
The Ukrainian Artists and Creatives Grant & Support Program is an initiative targeted to cultural and creative professionals from Ukraine who are trying to connect, work and make a living through their creative or artistic practices in a new European country.
The Ukrainian support program was launched on the 18th of June 2022 with an open call and was designed by the MakersXchange team to help Ukrainian CCS' displaced by the war resume their professional life in new conditions. During the two months period of the open call, 167 applications were received from Ukrainian artists and creatives from all over Europe with professional experience in different fields -from painters and filmmakers to UX/UI designers and tattoo artists. 27 program beneficiaries were supported with the grant of 1.000 euros distributed on a "first come, first serve" basis.
With the help of ECHN members in different countries, program participants were provided with assistance in mobility and networking with the local creative communities, finding accommodation and new jobs, working/rehearsing space and exhibition/performance opportunities, language courses and legal assistance. Tackling with the complex challenges during the Program implementation more closed connections between the ECHN members as well as with the new partners outside of the Network were established.
At the beginning of August 2022 due to the overwhelming amount of applications, MakersXchange had to close the submissions of the program. The team is in the process of planning their future steps.
Discover the motivating stories from the Ukrainian Support Program participants here.
Bogdan Tomashevsky is an artist and sculptor from Ukraine. With the help of the MakersxChange Ukrainian Artists & Creatives Support Programme he has been able to create his new sculptural project.
The story behind
Bogdan Tomashevsky is an artist and sculptor from Kiev, Ukraine. Since 2008 he used to work as an architect, but in 2011 his life was changed, when he was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, an autoimmune disease that strikes the musculoskeletal system of the body. Bogdan began a long search for therapy and remission. During rehabilitation, he began to use clay to restore hand motor skills. That was the beginning of his creative journey and later used the same material to create his art objects.
In March 2022 Bogdan was forced to leave his country, along with his wife and their 4 year old son, due to the russian invasion. Currently he is temporarily using a studio at Stuttgart’s Kunstmuseum, where he is able to work on his installations and projects.
Through their eyes
“Makersxchange helped me complete the first stage of this work. It was the first institution that supported me not only financially but also through motivation, a necessary tool for every artist. When I found out that I was chosen, I was happy and inspired because I would have the opportunity to finish the first sketches and prototype of my art project. I am an artist, a sculptor and I work with clay creating wall sculptural installations that can be exhibited indoors or outdoors. I started to create my art object on the theme of people and today’s events a few months ago. Your support helped me complete the first stage of this work. I was able to buy the materials – white and red clay, plywood and stretchers, several firings in a ceramic kiln, glue and all the necessary things. At the moment I have several finished artworks that I plan to show live in different institutions. The first stage of creating a sketch of my project is completed and I began an active search for partners and locations that would find this project exciting and I would be able to create it full size live in a public space. It is a street sculpture installation that consists of several thousand figures of people (ceramics), the size and dimensions can be edited depending on the wall. The idea and concept is based on the events that are currently taking place in Ukraine and in the world. With the help of this artwork I would like to show that the whole world and all intelligent people are united and support each other for the sake of our common future. This is a sculptural project about people, about all of us.”
More about Bogdan Tomashevsky
Prizes and Awards
2019 was chosen among other young artists by Port Agency to participate in Sculpture Camp and got a scholarship for creation of Contemporary Sculpture in Edem Resort, Lviv, Ukraine.
2016 winner in the open competition for the creation of a mural in the American Cultural Center in Kyiv.
2015 1st prize at the Feldman Art Park festival in category “Sculpture”, festival of young Ukrainian artists. Got a grant for art residency of Marat Gelman in Kotor, Montenegro.
2014 became one of 150 young artists sponsored by Firtash Foundation Charity Fund, got a grant for creation and exposition of personal project 1+1.
Selected Exhibitions
2022 The Captured House, Port Agency, Alte Münze, Berlin, Germany.
2021 Ukrainian public art exhibition “INTERACTION”, Port Agency, Kyiv, Ukraine. 2020 Ukraine sculpture park “PARK3020”, Lviv, Ukraine.
2020 Filatova studio “Home project” Kyiv, Ukraine (solo).
2020 KYIV ART WEEK, Forsa gallery, Kyiv, Ukraine 2019 Fair Art3f, Forsa gallery, Brussels, Belgium.
2019 Ukrainian Contemporary Sculpture, Golden Section, Kyiv, Ukraine.
2019 Sculpture Camp, by Port.agency & Edem Resort, Lviv, Ukraine.
2019 KYIV ART WEEK, Mironova gallery, Kyiv, Ukraine.
2018 VOLTA Basel, Mironova gallery, Basel, Switzerland.
2018 KYIV ART WEEK, Mironova gallery, Kyiv, Ukraine.
2018 Where Do We Go From Here?, IZOLYATSIA, Kyiv, Ukraine.
2017 SUMMER SHOW, Voloshyn Gallery, Kyiv, Ukraine.
2017 SCOPE BASEL Art Fair, Voloshyn Gallery, Basel, Switzerland.
2016 Babylon, GOGOLFEST, Kyiv, Ukraine.
2016 Phantommakers, Dukley art center, Kotor, Montenegro.
2016 Heritage, Voloshyn Gallery, Kyiv, Ukraine.
2015 Practice of Modification, Modern Art Research Institute, Kyiv, Ukraine.
2015 Feldman Art Park, Park Museum of Contemporary Art, Kharkov, Ukraine.
2015 Personal project 1 + 1 +, Shcherbenko Art Center, Kyiv, Ukraine (solo).
2014 Energy, Slava Frolova ArtPicnic, Kyiv, Ukraine.
2013 Cycles, GOGOLFEST, Kyiv, Ukraine (solo).
Residences and Symposiums
2022 Württembergischer Kunstverein Stuttgart, Germany (temporary shelter).
2019 Sculpture Camp, by Port.agency & Edem Resort, Lviv, Ukraine.
2016 Dukley art center, Kotor, Montenegro.
2015 Feldman Art Park, Park Museum of Contemporary Art, Kharkov, Ukraine.
